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Fermentation Atlas

Fish and seafood from Cambodia

Prahokប្រហុក

grey-brown chunky paste; made in a short season when the Tonlé Sap reverses and fish run. Made in 4 steps over 6 months – 8 months. The longest step, salt and pack in jars, takes 6–8 months (Thanh et al. 2025) and runs at 25–30 °C (Thanh et al. 2025). Salt is 30 % (Thanh et al. 2025). Lentibacillus does most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6–8 monthsMeasured[thanh2025]Salt and pack in jars
Temperature25–30 °CMeasured[thanh2025]Salt and pack in jars
Salt30 %Measured[thanh2025]Salt and pack in jars
AciditypH 6.2–6.5Measured[thanh2025]Salt and pack in jars
DocumentedFish and seafood6 months – 8 monthsMore fish and seafoodMore from Cambodia

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedWhat goes in. No source gives amounts for this ferment.
freshwater fish: giant snakehead (Channa micropeltes) in the study; trey riel, mud fish and moonlight gourami (Trichopodus microlepis) in markets
salt
Starter: spontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 months – 8 months

Start
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What changes: Starting material: freshwater fish, scaled, gutted and headed

Step 1 of 4
Scale, gut and behead the fish
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Tetragenococcus
Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

Variants

  • Prahok sach (with flesh) vs prahok chaoeung (bones, no flesh)fillet vs bone-only paste (typical; check source).

Safety

Fat oxidises as it ages: the peroxide value passed the 10 meq O2/kg reference from month 4 and ended about 5 times above it. Histamine stayed below detection in the lab paste but was 51.7 and 113.5 mg/kg in market samples; total biogenic amines ran from 255 (lab) to 1,199 mg/kg (market). The study authors advise fermenting about 3 months and always cooking prahok (Thanh et al. 2025).

Hazards the sources name: Aeromonas (at salting); Clostridium (steady through the ferment).

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

  1. [s1] Narzary et al. 2021 mentions prahocpaper
  2. [thanh2025] Thanh et al. 2025, prahok made from giant snakehead and followed for 6 months, PLoS ONE 20(4):e0321834paper
  3. [chrun2023] Chrun R. et al. 2023, Cambodian fermented fish and vegetables (26 prahok samples), JARQ 57(4):311-320paper